Resilient railway spike



IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII KE Filed June 18, 1938 2 Sheets-Sheet l 20 j g I L l f j armga a an F Patented Dec. 17, 1940 UNITED STATES 2,224,940 RESILIENT RAILWAY .srnm 3 Harold G.

Warr, Park Ridge, and George T. Willard, Evanston, Ill.

Application June 18, 1938,.Serial N 0.214, 124

13 Claims.

This invention relates to a new and improved elastic spike for resiliently clamping a railway tie plate to the top face of a cross-tie and for resiliently clamping the railway rail on the tie plate.

In some railway track constructions, tie plates are secured rigidly to the cross-tie and the railway rails are supported on the tie plates with capacity for limited vertical movements relative to the tie plates. Such constructions are intended to prevent vibratory movements of the plates and thereby prevent objectionable wear on the cross-tie. Ordinarily the tie plates are secured to the cross-ties by means of screw spikes, and separate fastening devices of divers character are employed to clamp or otherwise maintain the rails in their proper positions on thetie plates.

p The use of screw spikes in railway track constructions present certain serious objections in that they are relatively expensive, provide a rigid non-yielding action, and cannot be satisfactorily tightened when ."they 'work loose in a wooden cross-tie. In such cases, the looseness does not result, ordinarily, from reverse rotational movements of the screw but rather from the vertical pulling action thereon which tends to widen the screw thread groove formed in the wooden cross-tie. It also frequently happens that a screw spike hole is unduly enlarged, when removing such spike, by portions of the wall of the spike ho-le adhering to the corroded screw portion of the spike. When an ordinary cut spike is driven into the cross tie to retain the tie plate in its position thereon or to retain the railroad rail on the tie plate provision must be made for permitting the rail and/or the tie plate to move vertically relative to the tie in order to minimize the tendency which the normal up ward movement of a rail (the wave movement) has to exert a pulling force on the spike tending to withdraw it from the wooden cross-tie.

One of the objects of the present invention is to provide an improved elastic rail spike which a can be readily driven into and extracted from a wooden cross-tie and which is so formed as to increase its frictional hold on the walls of the spike hole when the element or elements which it clamps to the cross-tie exerts an upward pulling action on the spike.

Another object is of the above character which when driven to its applied position in a cross-tie will exert separate resilient pressures for clamping the'tieplate on the cross-tie and for clamp-ing or otherto provide an elastic spike.

wise retaining the railroad rail on the tie plate.

According to the invention, the spike is formed with a pair of resilient arms which project laterally from the spike shank in opposite directions and are adapted to exert resilient 5 clamping pressures on one or more track ele- 111611135 supported on a railway cross-tie. The said shank portion is preferably composed of two laterally resilient bars, the upper ends of which are bent laterally to form the said resilient arms. The adjacent ends of the arms engage each other to provide fulcrum bearings adjacent the upper end ;of the shank so that upward movements of the said arms tend to eifect an outward bowing of the shank bars in the spike holes of the cross-tie and thereby increase the frictional gripping action. of the spike shank on the wall portions of the spike hole.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention includes a shank portion composed of outwardly flexible bars, spikes including certain of the other improvements of the invention do not necessarily require a shank of the specific construction shown. For example, the improved feature of the invention whereby separate resilient pressures may be exerted on the tie plate and rail flange, respectively, for clamping these elements in position on the cross-tie, may be embodied in spikes having shank portions of j various construction. Likewise such feature of the invention isnot necessarily restricted to the specific arrangement of the resilient arms herein shown.

7 Other advantages and objects of the invention will be apparent from the detail description of the specific embodimentsof the invention shown in the accompanying drawings wherein: "Fig. lis a cross section through a railroad rail, cross-die, and tie plate showing a resilient rail spike constructed in accordance with this 40 invention and driven into the cross-tie to clamp the tie plate on the tie and to clamp the rail on the tie plate. Fig. 2 is a fragmentary plan view of the struc- "ture shown in Fig. 1.

Fig. 3' is a fragmentary view in perspective illustrating a portion of a tie-plate and underlying cross tie and illustrating another embodiment of the invention employed for clamping the tie plate to the cross-tie, and

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 1 illustrating the modified spike construction.

Referring first to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawings,

"10 designates a railroad rail, ll an ordinary wooden cross-tie, ['2 a metal tie plate inter- 55 posed between the cross-tie H and the base portion of the rail l0, and I3 designates one approved form of resilient track spike constructed in accordance with this invention and driven through a spike hole M in the tie plate and into a pre-bored hole IS in the underlying cross-tie. The spike I3 is made, preferably, from a strip of steel of rectangular cross section, folded upon itself at IE to form a laminated shank portion. The said shank is substantially square in cross section and is composed of two laterally flexible bars I! and I8. The upper ends of the bars are bent laterally, preferably in opposite directions from the shank, toprovide vertically resilient arms l9 and for clamping one or more track elements to the cross tie. In the present embodiment, the arm I9 is formed to exert resilient pressure on a tie plate and the arm 20 exerts resilient pressure on the marginal portion of the rail base. In order to permit the arm 20 to be made of sufficient length to provide the desired resilient pressure on the marginal portion of the rail flange and at the same time permit both'arms l9 and 20 to extend transversely of the rail, in the somewhat limited space between the edge of the rail base and the outer edge of the tie plate, the arm l9 ismade shorter than the arm. 20. This result is accomplished preferably by bending the arm l9 into the form of an open loop, the inturned end 2| of which bears on the tie plate near its outer edge. The loop form of arm I9 provides the desired resilience and also makes it practical to so arrange the arms that they not only extend transversely of the rail, but also project in opposite directions from the spike shank so that the adjacent ends thereof have fulcrum bearings against each other at substantially the point 22. Any upward flexing of the arms, therefore, imparts lateral tension to the shank bars |1 l8 and tends to force them apart, as shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1. Normally there will be no actual outward spreading of the said bars l1|8, but only a tendency to spread and therefore the exertion of an increased gripping action on the walls of the spike hole. However, when the spike hole l4 becomes enlarged by the forces exerted on the walls thereof or by the extraction and replacement of the spike, the bars l'l--l8 of the spike shank will assume the bowed configuration shown in dotted lines when the arms l920 are tensioned vertically. The outward bowing of the shank bars will, therefore, automatically adjust the size of the spike shank to the enlarged spike hole. The automatic expansion or adjustment of the spike shank in the above manner will make it unnecessary, except in cases of extreme enlargement of the spike hole, to plug the said hole and re-bore it to its original size.

In the embodiment illustrated in Figs. 3 and 4 of the drawings the arms IQa-Zlla are positioned to extend in the direction of the length of the rail and bear with equal pressure on the top surface of the tie plate only. Any suitable fastening device, for example the ordinary cut spike 2 3 may be used to retain the rail base in its proper position on the tie plate lZa. This form of rail spike has a special advantage over the screw spike, ordinarily used in this situation, in that it maintains the tie plate in resilient clamped engagement on the cross-tie and in that the shank portion of the spike automatically adjusts its size to compensate for enlargement of the-spike hole in the cross-tie in the manner 2,224,940 I e l above described. Furthermore, in the event of any wave or vertical movement of the rail, when the rail is clamped to the tie plate, the plate can be moved vertically of the tie without disturbing the position of the tie in the ballast of the roadbed. Except for the modified form of resilient arms |9a20a of this embodiment the spike may be and preferably is the same in construction as the spike shank previously described.

In operation either of the spike structures shown herein may be driven to its applied position in the pro-bored spike hole, the square corners of the spike shank will ordinarily cut into the round walls of the spike holes so as to provide a tight frictional grip. When the spike is driven to such a position that the ends of the resilient arms engage the tie plate, or the tie plate and rail base, as the case may be, the spike is driven slightly further into the cross tie so as to tension both of the resilient arms. The vertical tension of the arms imparts a lateral tension to the resilient bar members of the spike shank tending to force them outwardly into increased gripping engagement with the walls of the spike hole. When it is desired to extract the spike from the cross tie this can be accomplished by fitting a suitable claw bar about the spike shank directly above the tie plate. The outwardly curved bottom surfaces of the spring arms provide suitable engagement with the claw members of the spike puller.

We claim:

1. An integral elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a shank portion split in a vertical plane to form a pair of laterally resilient bars arranged back to back and adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a railway cross-tie, and a pair of separately flexible resilient arms extending laterally from the upper portion of the shank in opposite directions away from said vertical plane; one of said arms being positioned to exert resilient pressure on a tie plate supported on the cross-tie and the other of said arms be- .ing positioned to exert clamping pressure on a baseflange of a rail positioned on said plate.

2. An integral elastic spike fora railway track, comprising a shank portion split in a vertical plane to form a pair of laterally resilient bars arranged back to back and adapted to be driven into a railway cross-tie, and a pair of separately flexible resilient arms extending laterally from the upper portion of the shank in opposite directions away from said vertical plane; one of said arms being in the form of an open loop, the lower end of which engages and exerts resilient pressure on a tie plate supported on the cross-tie and the other of said arms being positioned to exert clamping pressure on a base flange of a rail positioned on said plate.

3. An integral elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a laminated shank portion adapted vto be driven into a railway cross-tie and composed of a pair of laterally flexible bars arranged back to back for abutting engagement with each other, the upper ends of which bars are bent laterally to provide separately flexible resilient arms whichextend in opposite directions away from the plane of said abutting engagement; one of said arms being positioned to exert resilient pressure on a tie plate supported on the crosstie and the other of said arms being positioned to exert clamping pressure on a base flange of a rail positioned on said plate.

4. An integral elastic spike for a railway track,

. comprising a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a railway cross-tie and composed of a pair of laterally flexible bars arranged with their back faces normally engaging in a vertical plane and having their upper ends bent laterally in opposite directions away from said vertical plane to provide separately flexible resilient arms adapted to exert vertical clamping pressure on a track element supported on said cross-tie.

5. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a railway crosstie and composed of a pair of laterally flexible bars the upper ends of which are bent laterally in opposite directions to provide arms for exerting vertical clamping pressure on track elements supported on the cross-tie; the adjacent ends of said arms being positioned to fulcrum against each other, whereby upward flexing of the arms exerts lateral tension on the bars of the shank to increase their frictional grip on the walls of said spike hole.

6. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a pro-bored hole in a railway crosstie and composed of a pair of laterally flexible bars the upper ends of which are bent laterally in opposite directions to provide arms for exerting resilient clamping pressure on a tie plate and a rail base flange, respectively, supported on said cross tie; the adjacent ends of said arms being positioned to fulcrum against each other when the arms are flexed upwardly, whereby said upward flexing of the arms exerts lateral tension on the bars of the shank to increase their frictional grip on the walls of said spike hole.

7. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion composed of laterally flexible bars arranged with their back faces normally engaging each other in a vertical plane and adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a wooden cross-tie, the free end portions of the folded strip being bent laterally in opposite directions away from said vertical plane to provide separately flexible resilient arms disposed within the planes of opposite sides of the shank and adapted to exert vertical clamping pressures on a track element supported on said cross-tie.

8. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion composed of laterally flexible bars arranged with their back faces normally engaging each other in a vertical plane and adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a wooden cross-tie, the free end portions of the folded strip being bent laterally in opposite directions away from said vertical plane to provide separately flexible resilient arms disposed within the planes of opposite sides of the shank and positioned, respectively, to clampingly engage the top surface of a tie plate positioned on said cross-tie and the top surface of a rail base positioned on said plate.

9. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a railway crosstie and composed of a pair of laterally flexible bars the upper ends of which are bent laterally in opposite directions to provide arms for exerting vertical clamping pressure on track elements supported on the cross-tie, the adjacent ends of said arms being positioned to fulcrum against each other, whereby upward flexing of the arms exerts lateral tension on the bars of the shank to increase their frictional grip on the walls of the spike hole.

10. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a railway crosstie and composed of a pair of lateral flexible bars the upper ends of which are bent laterally in opposite directions to provide arms for exerting resilient clamping pressure on a tie plate and a rail base flange, respectively, supported on said cross-tie; the adjacent ends of the arms being positioned to fulcrum against each other when the arms are flexed upwardly, whereby said upward flexing of the arms exerts lateral tension on the bars of the shank to increase their frictional grip on the walls of said spike hole.

11. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a pre-bored hole in a railway crosstie and corn-posed of a pair of laterally flexible bars the upper ends of which are bent laterally in opposite directions to provide arms for exerting resilient clamping pressure on a tie plate and a rail base flange, respectively, supported on the cross-tie one of said arms being bowed upwardly and relatively long to overlie the marginal portion of a rail base flange and the other arm being bent into the form of an open loop the lower inturned end of which is adapted to bear on the top surface of the tie plate and the adjacent ends of said arms being positioned to fulcrum against each other when the arms are flexed upwardly whereby said upward flexing of the arms exerts lateral tension on the bars of the shank to increase their frictional grip on the walls of said spike hole.

12. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a shank portion adapted to be driven into a railway cross-tie at one side of a railway rail and provided at the upper end of the shank with duplicate spring arms extending in opposite directions lengthwise of the rail for clampingly engaging the same track element.

13. An elastic spike for a railway track, comprising a spring metal strip folded upon itself to provide a laminated shank portion adapted to be driven into a railway cross-tie at one side of a railway rail, each member of the shank having at its upper end a spring arm extending outwardly from the shank body, the two spring arms 7 being of duplicate construction and extending in opposite directions lengthwise of the rail into clamping engagement with the same track ele- 

